‘Too Many Families Going To Bed Hungry’: A Look At Food Insecurity In The St. Louis Region

Roughly 850,000 people are facing food insecurity in the state of Missouri alone – and that includes about 220,000 kids.

“We estimate roughly one in five kids in the state of Missouri [are] hungry or at risk of not knowing where their next meal is going to be coming from,” Operation Food Search’s Lucinda Perry said Tuesday on St. Louis on the Air.

Perry, who is director of strategic initiatives for the nonprofit, joined host Don Marsh alongside guests from two other St. Louis-area organizations that focus on addressing food insecurity: Food Outreach and the St. Louis Area Foodbank.

Meredith Knopp, president and CEO of the St. Louis Area Foodbank, noted that the staggering number of Missourians struggling with hunger is also occurring in a “land of plenty” where 70 billion pounds of edible food ended up in landfills last year.